The Omeka team is committed to making Omeka an accessible option for building collections and exhibits online. We are working to make Omeka’s core code accessible and will continue to make accessibility for persons with disabilities a priority as we develop the code. Omeka strives to adhere to W3C web design standards and to be compliant with Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (pdf).

The following statements apply to Omeka versions 2.3 and higher.

Front End (Public view)

The public view of Omeka has the following features to improve accessibility:

ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) landmarks for tabbing through page content, when not using a mouse or using a screen reader;

Ability to skip navigation menu and go straight to content when using a keyboard or screen reader to navigate the site (in all RRCHNM-produced themes);

Semantic HTML5 markup.

These features are included in the core code as well as the plugins and themes which come bundled with Omeka for download (Plugins: Exhibit Builder, Coins, Simple Pages; Themes: Thanks Roy, Berlin, Seasons).

There are also Skip Nav and ARIA Landmarks on all Omeka themes produced by RRCHNM which do not come bundled with the download of Omeka from Omeka.org (Emiglio, Santa Fe, Minimalist, Rhythm).

Please note that although the core code for Omeka and its bundled themes and plugins conform to the above standards, sites built with Omeka which have been customized or which are using non-RRCHNM themes and plugins may lack some or all of these options. While we encourage developers to consider accessibility, we cannot ensure that their code includes ARIA Landmarks, SkipNav in the themes.

Back End (Administrative view)

The administrative dashboard of Omeka has the following features for accessibility:

Ability to skip navigation menu and go straight to content when using a keyboard or screen reader to navigate the site. If you do not skipnav, the sequence is: settings (top navigation bar), plugins (left navigation bar), content;

ARIA landmarks for screen readers on the Admin Dashboard, designating the header, navigation, footer, and main body content;

Semantic HTML5 markup.

A VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) is available for download as a PDF.